Canadians spending more time, money TV watching, radio listening

Toronto
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Canadians spent more time watching television and television on the Internet and listening to the radio in 2011 than in 2010, according to a new report from a Canadian commission. Consumers also spent more money enjoying this "creative content."

Are Canadians enthusiastic consumers of “creative content”? According to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) chairman Jean-Pierre Blais, the numbers say we are.

The commission published its annual report Tuesday that highlights our non-traditional media habits. Its conclusions suggest that Canadians spent more time watching television, listening to the radio and surfing the Internet in 2011 than in 2010.

On a weekly basis, the average Canadian watches 28.5 hours of television (28 hours in 2010), listens to the radio 17.7 hours (17.6 hours in 2010) and views television on the Internet 2.8 hours (2.4 hours in 2010).

Meanwhile, only four percent say they watch television online, while another four percent reported they watch television on a smartphone and three percent said on a tablet.

Although the figures indicate a strong showing for the traditional form of media, the trend continues to show a movement towards the Internet. The CRTC report indicated that 78 percent of 13.4 million households had some sort of Internet connection, while close to 90 percent of them had some sort of television provider.

Across the country, there were 702 television channels and 1,183 radio stations last year.

“Canadians are enthusiastic consumers of creative content, whether it is offered on television, radio or through digital platforms. The fact that they are spending more time watching or listening to programming is good news for Canadian creators,” stated Blais.

The telecommunications and broadcasting industries maintained a strong showing in 2011 as Canadians’ monthly average on these services were $180. Broadcast revenues jumped 5.5 percent to $16.6 billion from 2010 and telecommunications revenues increased 2.5 percent to $42.7 billion.

Cost of services per month:

- Wireless: $57.98 ($57.86 in 2010)

- Broadband Internet: $38.79 ($36.99)

- Telephone line: $31.23 ($31.35 in 2010)

- Television subscription: $61.86 ($59.73 in 2010)

Overall, the communications industry accounted for 4.6 percent of the nation’s GDP in 2011.